As the Marketing Manager at Microdose Mushrooms, I lead all digital and content marketing efforts aimed at increasing brand visibility and driving online sales for our range of psilocybin-based products.
Company: Microdose Mushrooms
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Denise Murray: I am Denise Murray the Marketing Manager at Microdose Mushrooms Canada. My role involves steering all the digital and content marketing initiatives for our specialized psilocybin-based product line. We are a dedicated online retailer committed to enhancing mental well-being and cognitive performance for Canadian consumers.
We believe in the therapeutic and performance-enhancing potential of psilocybin so we focus on providing safe accessible microdosing options. Our product range includes well-researched capsules such as Neuro Mood Neuro Focus and Neuro Blend, each formulated to support specific mental health or cognitive goals. We understand many people seek natural support for conditions like depression anxiety PTSD and ADHD, so we offer detailed information and access to these products. Our mission is to be a trusted resource in the rapidly evolving landscape of psychedelic research and use within Canada.
How do you personally define success, and how has that definition evolved throughout your career?
Denise Murray: Success for me has fundamentally shifted from a focus on extrinsic achievements to measuring meaningful impact. Earlier in my career, especially when I was just starting out, success was purely defined by easily measurable external metrics like securing a certain percentage of market share or hitting a specific quarterly revenue target.
Now, I measure success by the quality of the outcomes we facilitate, not just the quantity of sales. This means seeing a measurable reduction in the testimonials we receive about anxiety or depression, or hearing firsthand accounts of improved professional focus and creativity, which validates our specific products like Neuro Mood and Neuro Focus.
What lasting impact do you hope to leave through your business, and what steps are you taking to build that legacy?
Denise Murray: The lasting impact I truly hope to leave through Microdose Mushrooms is to help completely destigmatize the therapeutic use of psychedelics and establish them as a legitimate, accessible tool for mental wellness in Canada. I want our brand to be synonymous with responsible innovation and unwavering trust, fundamentally changing the public perception of psilocybin.
We are actively building that legacy by relentlessly prioritizing education and transparency over aggressive marketing tactics. We dedicate significant resources to producing research-backed educational content that demystifies microdosing, explaining the science clearly to the general public. This content acts as a crucial counter-narrative to misinformation.
Beyond financial success, what initiatives – whether in mentorship, sustainability, or social responsibility – are you most proud of?
Denise Murray: Our proudest initiative is the robust, free educational platform we have built dedicated to safe, responsible microdosing practices. We recognized the public needs accurate, science-based information to separate fact from sensationalism about psilocybin. We have partnered with several experts in psychedelic research and mental wellness to develop comprehensive guides and accessible research summaries. Our goal is to empower Canadians to make informed decisions about their own well-being. This project is not about selling products; it is about public safety and destigmatization.
What lessons have you learned about leadership that you wish more entrepreneurs understood early on?
Denise Murray: I wish more early-stage entrepreneurs understood that their role needs to transition from being the Chief Doer to the Chief Clarifier. Trying to control everything only breeds dependency and burnout. True leadership is about establishing extremely clear guardrails, principles, and strategic intents and then completely trusting your team to operate within them.
So instead of focusing on how a task is done, my focus shifted entirely to defining the desired outcome and the non-negotiable standards for compliance and quality. For instance, when delegating a new email marketing campaign, I do not dictate the subject lines. I dictate the target conversion rate and the legal requirements for messaging. This clarity empowers my team to innovate and move quickly because they know precisely where the boundaries are, freeing up my time to handle complex regulatory strategy. Giving away the how and keeping the why and what ensures that the whole business can scale without constantly waiting for my approval.
Looking ahead, how do you see your industry evolving, and what role do you hope to play in shaping its future?
Denise Murray: I see our industry moving rapidly toward a clear separation between strictly regulated medical treatments and a more accessible, well-defined consumer wellness market. Clinical research will continue to push for pharmaceutical-grade applications of psychedelics for severe mental illnesses, but the microdosing space is where the biggest shift in everyday wellness will occur. I anticipate that the total market size for psychedelic therapeutics in North America will hold around a 40 percent share of the global industry by 2035, driven significantly by psilocybin-focused segments.
My intended role is to position Microdose Mushrooms as the definitive gold standard for the regulated wellness category. We are actively playing a part in shaping this future by consistently demonstrating that a high-quality online retailer can operate with exceptional ethical rigor and transparency. We plan to continuously invest in bio-availability and dosing research for our capsule formulations to ensure we are offering the most effective and precise products available. We aim to drive a narrative of self-directed mental wellness which is supported by science and grounded in personal responsibility.
